declare it a terrorist attack because it happened on a 9/11 anniversary and the politics of the moment might have swallowed them up? pushback in pennsylvania. the courts consider whether new voter i.d. laws violate anyone's rights. may not matter if a judge decides that the new rules simply can't work in time. good morning from washington. it's thursday, september 27th, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. on the heels of matching manhattan moments and duelling buckeye banjos in ohio, mitt romney and president obama hit the same state for the third day in a row. today it's virginia. the president will speak at a rally at a virginia beach am amphitheater. as we told you yesterday, virginia is likely to be this year's florida or ohio. the state where returns will mostly resemble the national number. if you want to know how

important virginia is to both campaigns, look at where they are buying their tv ads. four of the top ten most saturated tv markets in the country this week are all in virginia. roanoke lynchburg market, and now washington d.c. which of course reaches into northern virginia. three more of the top ten are in ohio. the president leads by five to eight points. today the romney campaign will focus on local issues hitting the president on defense cuts. it's clear the 47% issue is a drag on romney's campaign. he went out of his way at every stop yesterday to show a more compassionate side. >> i've been across this country. i think the president cares about the people of america. i care about the people in america but i know how to help the people of america. with he have people that are hurting. we have people that are disabled

and people who are poor. they need our help and receive our help. we're a charitable people. >> when asked how he can understand the problems of the middle class given his personal wealth, he tauted his massachusetts health care overhaul. >> don't forget i got everybody in my state insured. 100% of the kids in our state have health insurance. i don't think anything shows more empathy and care about the people of our state than that kind of record. >> the question was not about health care. romney went from the interview to a toledo rally where he then slammed the president's health care law. >> obama care is exhibit number one of the president's political philosophy. and that is that government knows better than people how to run their lives. >> every time i look at romney

and health care i think of jack nicholson and "a few good men." health care in massachusetts was a signature accomplishment and it seems to kill him he can't simply say you're right i signed the bill into law and like the mandate in this state. he can't campaign on health care and there's a takeback like you saw now. >> president obama is coming across aggressive on the campaign trail. the president argued republicans wanted to give the wealthiest americans people like me and mr. romney a tax cut. now the president has changed that language. he leads himseves himself out o. >> my opponent thinks it's fair that someone who makes 20 million a year like he does pays less than an autoworker who makes 50,000 a year but i disagree. i don't think that's fair. >> meanwhile, paul ryan debuted a power point presentation over

the weekend in florida and has now been using charts on the trail since to hammer the president on the national debt at kent state university last night, the president decided to mock him for it. >> if they go around as they have in ohio with some board behind them with numbers and saying how it's a moral obligation to reduce the deficit, just ask them, well, explain how the numbers work. >> then the president turned his own gaffe into a hit on romney. >> i want to see us export more jobs. export more products. excuse me. i was -- i was channeling my opponent there for a second. >> this morning the big news is from the obama campaign. they are out with a two-minute television ad that to many will look like a campaign closure spot if you will and the

campaign believes frankly that for many voters it is the closing days before voting. voters in 30 states are already eligible to vote. this ad is the last thing the campaign wants the people to see before the debates. this ad airs in colorado, florida, iowa, nevada, new hampshire and virginia. not north carolina or wisconsin. take a look. >> during the last weeks of this campaign there will be debates. speeches. and more ads. if i could sit down with you in your living room or around the kitchen table, here's what i would say. when i took office, we were losing nearly 800,000 jobs a month. today i believe that as a nation we are moving forward again. >> the ad goes on for more than another 90 seconds. he ticks through what he says is his four-point plan if he gets a second term and asks folks to compare his plan to romney and sends them to a website. the romney campaign responds this morning in a statement from press secretary andrea saul.

>> in the time it takes his latest ad to run, our national debt grows by at least another $5 million. team obama is quickly seizing on early voting. it was just as slow in labeling the attack on the u.s. embassy in libya as an act of terrorism. in an exclusive interview with nbc news and ann curry, claims were discounted the attack were in response to a video produced in california and available on youtube. >> would you call the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi an act of terrorism? >> i have no doubt about that. and it's a preplanned act of terrorism directed against american citizens. >> do you think the movie had anything to do with this attack on the consulate? >> not on this attack. not on this attack. it has nothing to do with this attack. >> and yesterday white house

press secretary told reporters traveling on air force one, "it's the case that it's our view as an administration, the president's view, that it was a terrorist attack." it's the first explicit acknowledgement that the president believes the libyan attack was an act of terror. secretary of state hillary clinton speaking at the united nations on wednesday became the highest ranked official to publicly say there was a link between the attack and al qaeda. >> for some time al qaeda and other groups have launched attacks and kidnappings into neighboring countries and they are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions under way in north africa as we tragically saw in benghazi. >> republicans are trying to seize on this slow walk by the administration. it seems to be a legitimate gripe. they are trying to make it stick. a group of powerful house

republicans from the armed services, foreign affairs, intelligence, judiciary and appropriations committee have sent a letter saying clearly the threat from al qaeda and affiliate groups has increased an we're not learning. a good time line of the obama's administration evolving statements on libya from saying it wasn't planned to now acknowledging it was an act of terrorism. the most charitable explanation of these resolving statements is information the administration received has changed or wasn't complete or the most uncharitable is the white house was slow to admit it was terrorism due to the upcoming election and sending out u.n. ambassador susan rice to morning shows days after the attacks saying we do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned. by the way, you have to wonder if obama wins re-election is rice's chances of being secretary of state are collateral damage from all of this simply because senate

republicans may want someone to go after if they end up losing the big enchilada. critics of the voter i.d. law will take the stand today to convince the judge that the provision is unworkable. they'll hear from witnesses who say the state hasn't adequately prepared the public for what's coming. pete williams is nbc's justice correspondent. you had one court send it back to another court in pennsylvania. making this argument, look, to the state, you better prove you can make this law work. we're not saying it's unconstitution a. unconstitutional. we don't know if it will work. >> the law originally passed said you could use a driver's license or like many states, a nondriver state i.d. >> fishing license, something like that. >> a specific card. a nondriver's license that looks like a driver's license but isn't one. so when people went to get it, the state said, well, that's fine but you have to have a birth certificate with a raised seal, a social security card and two other forms of

identification. more than the legislature intended. here's the problem. we have to do a thorough background check because you can use one of these cards for other homeland security purposes. boarding airplanes for example. the state said we'll issue a new third kind of card that's only good for voter i.d.s but then the opponents said it's still too hard to get one. when you go to get one, people said but you have to get the nondri nondriver's license any way. the state says it's easy to get. the question for the judge now is it going to be fixed and fast enough in order to get them to the people that need them and that's what the opponents of the law say can't possibly happen in time for the election. now at a hearing on tuesday, the judge signaled to both sides that he was probably going to put a stop on this at least for this election. he won't rule for the next day or so but at this point it's a tough road for the state to prove this will not disenfranchise voters. >> pennsylvania is one of the

very few states that has a very hard absentee ballot. almost all voters vote on election day in pennsylvania unlike what the phenomenon that we were talking about earlier. it seems as if the most likely result is some sort of injunction. >> it seems that way. the judge said when you come back on thursday, today, be prepared to argue what kind of injunction i should issue. will it be temporary? >> the law is going to be upheld eventually. that's the other thing i feel like -- you hear that's the way the baby is being split here. the law is constitutional. >> in principle. >> the state has made too many changes is argument the judge is inclined to go with right now in order to use it for the purposes of this fall's election. >> pete williams, all things legal. a little complicated. that's why we have you. taking the fight to the old dominion. we'll talk to virginia senator

mark warner next. and money matters. after months sitting on the sidelines, there's democratic donors getting into the super pac game. are the biggest gop super pacs holding onto their cash? fascinating to watch. vote early and often. ballots are being cast in a key swing state and it's looking good for the president. we'll tell you where that is. first, a look ahead at the schedules of president obama and mitt romney. as you say, they are all over virginia and they're going to not swing areas of virginia per se but where they can work on their base. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. we'll be right back. my name is adam frucci and i'm the editor of splitsider.com. i love new technology, so when i heard that american express and twitter were teaming up, i was pretty interested. turns out you just sync your american express card securely to your twitter account, tweet specific hashtags,

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>> it is good to be back in norfolk. >> virginia really knows how to say hello. >> it's great to be in virginia. >> it's one issue that's really important here in virginia. >> what a welcome. thank you, virginia! >> it could all come down to what happens in just a few battleground states like virginia. >> virginia, you're a battleground state. it could come down to virginia and 13 electoral votes this november. both candidates are back in the commonwealth today campaigning for votes in a place that went blue for the first time in 40 years last time around. joining me now is democratic senator mark warner. when he won, people thought it was an anomaly and was the start of a trend of moving virginia from red to purple. senator, good morning. >> good morning, chuck. >> i want to ask you about the swing -- if you were to describe why virginia is a swing state, it was the state that most closely matched the national number four years ago.

how the nation went, so went virginia. why? what is the uniqueness about it that makes it match the national -- the way the national picture looks? >> in a lot of ways virginians are less partisan. we don't have party i.d. in our elections. i think folks in virginia are interested in people who get stuff done and they felt last time and again i think this time they weigh the two candidates and they feel like president obama's record and the fact that he's got a plan for moving forward. you know, one of the things that i think has not got enough attention in this election, i was a business guy for 20 years longer than i've been a politician. my biggest critique of the romney/ryan approach is the business plan isn't a plan i would invest in and i don't think mitt romney at bain would invest in. a good business invests in workforce, plant and equipment, how to stay ahead of the competition. governments do it in education, infrastructure, and r&d and romney/ryan plan cuts that by 75%. i don't know how you stay

competitive if you spend less than 5% of federal resources on educating your workforce and building roads and bridges and doing that r&d. india, china, even europe is doing more than that. i think that kind of business plan approach is something that resonates in virginia. >> do you believe one of the other reasons the president has held up strong in virginia the whole time is federal workers, the economy, what specifically? is it because there are a lot of federal workers who are mad at republicans that want to cut or is it that the economy thanks to the federal government and defense contractors, unemployment rate is basically at full employment? >> well, virginia is doing better than the rest of the country. that's been a trend we've had for a decade plus. i do think because there's a lot of federal workers, because there are a lot of folks who work in the defense industry, this constant effort of shutting down the government that we have seen, approach from the house, you know, i think that's kind of tested people's patience and if

2010 was an election where people were just angry, i think 2012 people in virginia for that matter across the country want to hire people who want to get things fixed and not say what's wrong with the other guys. >> why do you think the president is doing better than tim kaine? >> i think at the end of the day tim will -- i'll make a bet he'll do a bit better than the president. i don't see a lot of obama/allen voters in virginia. there are voters in the state who are not focused yet on the senate race for may focus on the presidential race. i think tim will do very, very well well. >> as a u.s. senator are you comfortable with the explanation the obama administration has offered you on what happened in benghazi? >> i'm on the intel committee. i think it is very appropriate for the administration to try to get all of the facts before they rush to judgment. and i think there are still facts that need to be uncovered. if they would have rushed the

other way and then proven not to be the case in a terrorist attack, they would have been attacked for that as well. >> looking at what susan rice said on sunday shows in hindsight, that was a mistake? >> you deal with the facts that you have at the time. and i still think there are still facts to be uncovered in terms of certain time lines. this is a dangerous part of the world. end of the day we know that we've got to do a better job going forward of protecting our diplomatic personnel wherever they were in the world. >> you don't believe you were misled? >> i think as the facts come out, the administration is going to get those out to us. i want to hear more. my colleagues want to hear more. i can assure you this took place in a part of the world where i wish we would have had more intel but i think there is a real danger in rushing to judgment before you get all of the facts. >> senator mark warner, democrat from virginia, thanks for coming on this morning. >> thanks, chuck.

>> after a down day on wall street, investors look across the pond today. market rundown is next. maybe it's the one thing democrats and republicans could agree on lately. after three weeks of blown calls, the nfl and the refs and that lockout, they finally have struck a deal. first, today's trivia question. who is the first u.s. president with an mba? tweet me the answer. the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown." we'll be right back.

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wall street reacting to some mixed messages today while jobless claims hit the lowest level in months. new data shows the u.s. economy is growing at a slower pace than previously thought. let's get to the market rundown.

becky, what are the markets going to see in they have known the economy is growing slowly. >> they have. it looks like we'll open higher today by quite a bit. looks like the dow futures up by 75 points at this moment. we were already looking at positive numbers even before we got the data that came out. part of that is bounceback because s&p is down for five days in a row so people are looking at this as let's slow down for a moment and reassess. we got numbers out at 8:30. it was a mixed picture. jobless claims is the most important. that's what the market is focusing on. that number did come in better than expected. 359,000. consensus estimate was 375,000. it's below 385 we saw last week. people said this is good news. you see a drop in firing. not a surge in hiring but firing is slowing down and we'll take whatever we can get on the jobs picture. when it came to durable goods though, this was a big shocker. durable goods down 13.2%. that was a huge miss because

they were only looking for a drop of 5%. a lot of weird numbers can go into this. part of this is nondefense aircraft orders fell to zero. the other story is a big drought. you saw farm inventories drop by $5.3 billion and that's the drought story. we knew the drought was out there. we didn't realize what a huge impact it had. you are talking about the market looking like it will open. were you singing? >> that wasn't me. i'm just that good. i'm just that good. >> i thought it was you. >> i'm told it was wex. you were humming along as well. >> i believe in magic and i believe in becky quick. we're taking a deep dive into the super pac, super spending and guess what? it is suddenly democrats pouring money into their big super pac. we'll break down numbers for you. we'll be back in 30 seconds.

on the radar, a hail mary pass for the nfl and football fans. three out of five states are into early voting and a new lead on one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. first, early voting begins in iowa today. the hawkeye state joins 29 others to have some form of early voting so far. on that list are crucial swing states like virginia, iowa, north carolina, more states, ohio, florida, pennsylvania, will start early voting in october. after a tweet from the

president, a national outcry from football fans and politicians of all stripes, the regular nfl referees are finally back in their stripes. around midnight this morning, the nfl and the officials union announced a tentative eight-year agreement was reached to end a lockout that began in june. the agreement will not change records for games played with replacement refs. the deal will be voted on tomorrow and saturday but league commissioner roger goodell says the lockout will start with tonight's brown/ravens game, where there was a fear what fans would do to replacement refs, you had to get real refs there. police in michigan think they might have a lead on where jimmy hoffa is buried. a dying detroit man tells police he believes he saw hoffa's body being buried 35 years ago. investigators will take soil samples from beneath a detroit

driveway to determine if a body is buried there. jimmy hoffa was last seen in 1975. despite a number of searches over the years, his body has not been found even when they built the new giants stadium which was the great rumor for so long. today's deep dive. more evidence that money will not decide this race. four months there was hand wringing about high money donors and contributors that wrote big checks in 2008 would sit in the sidelines in 2012 and a big money deficit would make a difference in a tight presidential race. back in early february, the president reversed a long held position on super pacs signaling they should pony up and to democrats it was safe to ask for outside money themselves. he teased the decision in an interview with nbc's matt lauer. >> if you ask me would i love to take some of the big money out of politics? i would. unfortunately right now partly because of supreme court rulings and a bunch of decisions out

there, it is very hard to be able to get your message out without having some resources. >> a few weeks later the reason behind the reversal became a tad clear. you want to understand why the president flipped on super pacs, look at this number. this is president's super pac in january. $58,815.83 raised and questions about big donors were meant with defensiveness. even after the president's reversal, super pac fund-raising failed to pick up for the democrats significantly in particular the official obama super pac, priorities usa raising just $2 million in february. 2.5 million in march. less than 2 million in april. trailing well behind the mitt romney super pac and high dollar donations to the obama campaign were lagging. by the end of january $2,000 or

for received from 11,000 supporters. fewer than half of the big donors his campaign had at the same point in time in 2008 and less than a quarter of the number of high dollar donors george w. bush had at the same point in his re-election. and now we're starting to see interesting analysis. >> continues to say do not get complacent. don't hold your cash. don't hold your checks back until june, july and august because we need to build our infrastructure now. >> what a difference four or five months make. the checks ramped up this summer. in august, obama super pac priorities usa action outraised romney's restore our future for the first time and now we see the impact. we see that restore spending plummeted from august to september. from 23 million to just 3 million. meanwhile, priorities usa has more than doubled its spending from just under 4 million in august to more than 9 million in september. now typically if you have plenty of money, you run television ads. if you don't, you run radio ads.

priorities latest ad buy is on the radio point of a joint effort with the labor group. here's a piece of it. >> 150 million americans, seniors, veterans, the disabled, romney attacked them when he thought no one else was listening. >> my job is not to worry about those people. >> one more thing to show you, a shocking figure that comes from the late test round of tv spending figures. take a look. they show that conservative super pac american crossroads was off the air in august. zero dollars spent. crossroads gps an affiliated group barely made a dent in september. they jumped into the game in a big way laying out 21 million combined. why did one of the supporters go dark at the beginning of the campaign's stretch run? it's a question some may ask later. while republican groups as a whole are outspending democratic groups, the gap is narrowing thanks in part to the individual

donors finally stepping up on the democrats behalf. michael is here we. where is this jump coming from? is this the president may win, i want to look like i supported him money or a concerted effort? >> there are several things going on. some of that is exactly what you just said. -- he may win. train is leaving the station. i talked to a democratic consultant who told me the other day that october is going to look like christmas for democratic super pacs. not just labor unions but money on wall street and trial lawyers are stepping up. >> trial lawyers. >> surprisingly quiet but now we're starting to see it. if you looked at the numbers from the last reporting just last week you see a surge in money from trial lawyers.

>> we'll put up numbers. we'll put up graphics here. >> steve and amber mostyn. former president of the texas trial lawyers association. huge democratic donor. 3 million to democratic super pacs. peter angelos has a lot to be happy about these days. $1.2 million and john eddie williams, $750,000. >> none of these guys had given money in the first six months. >> hadn't given money before. they are turning it on. here's an interesting question. not a big issue that we've talked about in the race. what do they care about? >> what do these trial lawyers care about? >> anything that affects mass tort legislation. what they really care about is judges. we're all talking about next president may have three supreme

court jundges. 14 and 62 is the number of vacancies on the court of appeals and in federal district court judges. liberals haved disappointed that obama has not nominated more and pushed them through. i think this is to buck obama up to get moving on this issue. they want liberal judges and they want plaintiff friendly judges for those mass tort litigation cases. and that's something they care about a lot. the fact that we're seeing this money is an indication you're going to see more push on obama to start doing that. >> interesting. one quick thing. the clinton angle. a lot of ex-clinton people. clinton getting more involved in super pac fund-raising. explain. >> clinton starting to put the arm on some of the big democratic donors. we're starting to see some of these hedge fund guys traditionally given to democrats, liberals, pony up,

james simmons founder of renaissance technology. >> clinton did some quiet events up in new york. >> also don't forget ram goes from co-chairman of the campaign during the convention dropping that in order so he can start pushing talking to super pacs and putting heat on them and you start to see that at the convention. may have taken a hiatus during the teachers strike but that will have a big impact. >> should we look at it like if you see this increase, it's the big donors betting? >> i think this trend that you start to see in august we'll see big-time in september when we get numbers. >> great work. excellent way of connecting the dots on these judicial vacancies. just like old times, guess what? newt gingrich has harsh words for the romney campaign. our political panel joins me next. first, white house soup of the day today, it's a lot of -- i don't know how much they're

hanging out in the white house today. it's virginia. back and forth. a quick pick me up, they can have white chicken chili. we need more likes and pokes. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. >> time for "your business" entrepreneur of the week. andrew is the fourth generation owner of rosenwach tanks. he says you don't throw out what works. you just build upon it. for more, watch "your business" this sunday morning at 7:30 on msnbc. [ ross ] we are in the dades gorge,

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it's also clinically proven... to help keep plaque from coming back. plus, it works in these other areas dentists check most. ♪ new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste. life opens up when you do. for extra plaque protection try new crest pro-health clinical rinse. if senators buy the view that judge thomas will approach roe v. wade with an open mind, there's a bridge in brooklyn they might also like to buy. >> that was senator ted kennedy back on this day in 1991 when the senate judiciary committee deadlocked 7-7 on the supreme court nomination of clarence thomas. the committee instead voted to send judge thomas' nomination without a recommendation to the full senate. thomas of course was confirmed nearly three weeks later by one of the narrowest margins ever in history.

52-48. former republican primary rival newt gingrich delivered, shall we say, one of his tough assessments of mitt romney's messaging and campaign strategy on wednesday. here's newt. >> the romney campaign is yet to find a way of explaining itself and laying out in clear, crisp way the difference between romney and obama and i think that frankly is a problem. they have this overmethodical model where they go out and say the same thing. >> joining me now for my panel, the former communications directs director for harry reid and also my current colleague at the white house, nbc's mike viqueira and republican ad maker, brad todd is in the studio box. mr. todd, since i don't get to say mr. todd very often unless i'm talking to myself, we're not

related but people ask us that all the time. assess newt's assessment. is he right? >> the fantasy is trying to aller history opposed to live it. i think that's what he's trying to do here. i think really he ought to be asking obama the same thing. mitt romney may have made a mistake or two running his campaign but president obama has made mistakes running the country. so that's the mistakes that need to be owned up to. >> do you think this republican sort of criticism of romney that's gone public is doing damage to romney and not helpful? >> voters don't play this parlor game. i'm glad some people do so we can talk about it here on the show. voters much more worried about what's going on in their lives and problems in their own personal economy opposed to what's happening in the campaign day-to-d day-to-day tactically. >> we know there's not a love loss ant shouldn't be that surprising to have newt criticize romney. it seems like more republicans are trying to go public for some

reason. >> not pulling for one side or the other but arm chair quarterbacking you see it every cycle when people fall behind. a struggle between the severe conservative wing of the republican party and the compassionate conservative wing of the republican party. newt gingrich represented a severe conservative wing and that's one thing that mitt romney is fighting against right now. >> it seems, jill, showing the closing ad with what the president is up to. how important is the early vote for the president's campaign and clearly it seems to be a very dominant theme why we saw closing spot if you will. >> i was thinking about the early vote because right now if someone starts voting today, they are looking at a campaign that could be very different in two weeks because sometimes these moments happen that change dynamics. >> it sounds like you're confli conflicted. >> i'm conflicted. it's great to get as many people voting as possible and if this helps, that's wonderful. it concerns me especially in races where people don't start focusing until the very end like

senate races, house races, ballot races, you know, something could happen and people could change their mind and then they have no recourse. >> the democratic party has been so focused on early vote for a long time. i would argue we saw it in 2000. we saw it in 2004. democrats have outorganized republicans on the early vote. is it good for democracy? >> i think it is. how long has this election been going on? i think that all of the information is out there. i think there are people that are just tuning in. there are people that have been tuning in for weeks and months and a year and a half. how many republican debates were there? every single day the network news leads off or it's in their a block of something with the presidential -- >> you feel the information is out there. this isn't like 20 years ago. >> the president has been president for 3 1/2 years. mitt romney has been running for president since god knows when. they're not new. they're not new to the american people. i think that is out there.

>> brad, since i have you here, you're a tv ad guy. you do a lot of tv ad buying. i want to throw up our list of the most saturated tv markets for the week. madison number one. seven of the top ten are in ohio and virginia. the only other state represented is florida other than madison, wisconsin. there was an interesting story in "the washington post" this morning that i'm sure you caught. romney has more money but obama gets more discounted tv ads. explain how that works. >> the candidate dollars are given a preferential rate at television stations opposed to issue groups. american crossroads, even the party committees pay a higher rate than candidates pay themselves. so president obama has been able to spend more money from his campaign with his own campaign committee writing the check opposed to a super pac or outside group than romney has. the reason is simple. we have a broken system on the federal elections commissions level. romney can take $2,500 per

person. he spent that long ago in primaries. the $2,500 that obama got in march is still in the bank. >> i heard critiques that romney campaign could be doing better. when you watch their ad buys and where they do placements, do you agree with that assessment? >> it's a very tough call. there's a big chest gas game go on here. obama campaign invested heavily in very small markets in virginia and ohio, places where republicans typically would run well. obama is betting that heavy spending in those markets could help overcome what would be a national republican advantage. the romney campaign bets they can take a pass on those for a while. that's the interesting question about media buying strategy in this campaign. >> i want to end this segment here before we do a senate race after the break. a republican pollster said this about do or die aspect for romney at the debates.

it went from being important to being life sustaining. he talks about from a fund-raising perspective keeping money coming in and it was something i heard republicans quietly tell me if he doesn't hold up well at the debates, you're going to have senate and house republicans saying, hey, changing their message to don't give obama a blank check. >> i'm one of the people that likes to stifle the urge to go against what everyone else is saying. look at the conventions. look at the 47%. look at some of romney's comments and say those are consequenti consequential. >> it does seem 47% left a mark. >> absolutely. campaigns are full of moments. >> when we come back, we'll talk the senate and is there something brewing in pennsylvania. we asked who was the first u.s. president with an mba? the answer, this turned out to be too easy. george w. bush was the first and only president to hold a masters in business, which he earned at harvard. same place mitt romney earned

his mba. if romney won the house, he would be the first joint j.d. and mba. do you have a political trivia question to be on the show? e-mail us. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] how do you trade? with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. try our easy-to-use scottrader streaming quotes. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade.

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let's bring back our panel. so, yesterday we joked about claire mccaskill waiting until after the deadline to go up with the first attack ad. then we got this from the senatorial committee. todd aiken is a far more preferable candidate than liberal senator claire mccask l mccaskill. we will continue to monitor this race closely in the days ahead. that last sentence, code for, well, maybe we will -- >> virtue of necessity. what else are they going to do? the choice is between avending

the seat of democrats and backing todd akin. i think all along since he's been stubborn about staying in the race this race was going to tighten up after the initial flush of outrage over his legitimate rape comment. >> fred todd, you used to do a lot with them. is this -- how do you -- how do you sort of circle the messages of what the republican party said in august about todd akin and then suddenly throwing money in his race? >> they're not throwing money in at this race at this point. it's logical for them to monitor the situation. he is the nominee now. he's going to be the nominee. to me more interesting is the fact that the republican senate battlefield now runs through new england of all places. maine has faltered badly. linda mcmann is now still doing well against chris murphy. scott brown is holding his own against her and leading in many polls. if republicans lead all three of

those races, the republicans are going to pick up the senate. >> that is true on new england approximate. do you think you can get more traction on akin if they keep coming in and supporting him? >> i think so. if the republican party after this election wonders why they're still having a problem with women, it's because of stuff like this. they did what was the politically right thing but the right thing with distancing themselves from akin, then just to come back, that's going to be a problem not just for the akin race but nationally. >> not just money. saying words that seem supportive of akin, the more they start doing that, the more ammunition they're giving rodell and other democrats in other races. >> but what has been fascinating is the strongest candidates have been the women candidates, both in the democratic and republican side. we put this out yesterday, mike. >> right. as brad just talked about the candidate race there. a perfect example. >> is that the republican

party's three best candidates? >> they probably are. i think they probably are. scott brown is a great candidate in -- of course he's an incumbent but in running a fantastic race in a tough state. that's part of the four you can put. >> shameless plug time. jill, you go first. >> for all the political junkies out there you've got to read sasha eisenberg's new book "the victory lab." it's fantastic. >> third shameless plaug plug. >> american bridge today is launching akintv.com. saving it. over 90 events, raw footage on akintv.com. >> todd? >> this weekend, college football, coach to cure md, the college football coaches will be trying to help cure muscular dystrophy. help them out. >> it's a good cause. >> close to home being bethesda, maryland, the msi classic 14 and under galaxy team, 3.

0. >> welcome back, ed hockly. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." tomorrow we will show you the state of the race, north carolina, nevada, and new hampshire. the ns have it. coming up next, chris jansing. bye-bye. i have your business travel forecast. a few areas of rain but overall many of the major airports should be just fine nor your travels today. we're going to see a little period of rain heading off the mid atlantic coast during the day today and more rain should develop in oklahoma and especially here in southern missouri. just typical afternoon thunderstorms down there in florida. enjoy and have a great thursday. [ male announcer ] if you stash tissues

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...our budgets won't be picking the style. we will. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now get $37 basic installation on all special order carpet. good morning. i'm chris jansing. next, with the president and mitt romney will be both in in virginia as the polls increasingly favor the president and the calendar is mitt romney's nemesis. just six days until the first debate. 40 days until the election. the president stumps in virginia beach today while romney is in springfield. those swing state polls show mitt romney down. and his campaign is now reserved another $3.4 million in ad time in those crucial states, including $1.5 million for virginia. but it's ohio's numbers that are raising a lot of eyebrows today. the president hinted at the 47%

video there that's been so devastate for his opponent. >> i have spent a lot of time in ohio, and i don't meet a lot of victories. i see a lot of hard work in ohio ans. >> "new york times" political analyst nate silver calculates that mitt romney's chance of winning ohio is 3.6%. as we've been tell you, no republican has won the white house without it. despite the polls piling up against him mitt romney insists he can win. >> i believe in america, and i believe in you. i believe you're going to help me win ohio, i'll tell you that. all right. >> i want to bring in carl bernstein, contributor to "the daily beast" and lynn sweep, columnist and bureau chief for the chicago sun times. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> you look t those polls and you wonder, carl, if you're running mitt romney's campaign, what do you do now? y